Aminta Arrington, Songs of the Lisu Hills: Practicing Christianity in Southwest China  (University Park, Penn.: Pennsylvannia State University Press, 2020).

reviewed by Karl Dahlfred

Readers familiar with mission history in East Asia may have heard of J.O. Fraser, the early twentieth century C.I.M. missionary who did pioneer evangelism among the Lisu people of southwest China. His story has been the subject of multiple biographies but many may not know what has become of Lisu Christianity since Fraser. In Songs of the Lisu Hills, Aminta Arrington skillfully fills this gap, recounting the history and development of Lisu Christianity from its early days to the present in a way that puts the Lisu Christians, and not Fraser and other missionaries, at the centre of the story. This book is not a mere history of Lisu Christianity, however, but also the reflective analysis of a participant-observer who weaves together first-hand accounts of modern Lisu Christians and their practices with academic analysis, setting the Lisu Christians in cultural, religious, linguistic, and political context.

I understand why some Christians say that everyone is a missionary. I get it. I really do. And I am totally on board with encouraging every believer to have an outreach mentality and to look for opportunities in their daily life to share the Gospel.  Challenging people to think beyond themselves and to bless other with the Gospel is super important and I don’t want to discourage that.  When I hear people claim that all believers are missionaries, it is rare that I would say anything to contradict that because I know why they are saying that, and I agree with their goal.

That said, the word “missionary” has traditionally been applied to only a small segment of Christians, namely those who leave their family and country to go someplace far away to share the Gospel with people who have little to no exposure or access to biblical truth. In Scripture, the apostle Paul is the prime example of a missionary since he traveled around the Roman empire sharing the Gospel in places where Christ was not yet known (Rom. 15:20).